International Relations?

<p>Does Harvard have a good international relations program, if they even have one?</p>

<p>Also, what are some specific careers in the field of International Relations. How much do they pay?</p>

<p>Ambassador - a lot of money, a free house in a nice, safe area and a free car + awe and respect from those around you.</p>

<p>I don't believe that Harvard has an IR concentration. You can, however, concentrate in Government and take a bunch of IR-related courses.</p>

<p>Ambassadorships tend to go to political cronies of the current administration, not academics or career diplomats.</p>

<p>Do you know what the best school(s) is for international relations programs? What about Georgetown?</p>

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Do you know what the best school(s) is for international relations programs? What about Georgetown?

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<p>Georgetown School of Foreign Service is pretty much unimpeachably the finest undergraduate school for foreign policy, International Affairs, International Political Economy, International Politics, and diplomacy in the world. SFS' internal stats indicate that its SAT figures and median GPA are pretty much right in line with Harvard, slightly higher than Yale's, and above Stanford's. Its acceptance rate is around 18 or 19%, however, it is an extremely self-selective pool of applicants...so that figure is misleading. </p>

<p>I go to a Jesuit prep school that usually gets around 20-25 students admitted to Georgetown College each year, however, it was a huge shocker when we had not one (unusual) but two (never happened before) students admitted to SFS this year. That's how difficult the place is to get into. Kids get turned away from SFS, and will get into several ivies. And both of us this year will be enrolling in SFS (the other student was admitted to Yale and is declining them). </p>

<p>Georgetown SFS is one of the few schools that Harvard loses a significant number of admitted students to. I, for one, was waitlisted by Harvard and will be attending Georgetown SFS next year. If admitted to Harvard, I'd give that a second thought (since I absolutely love Harvard), but it's near impossible to beat SFS academically if you want to be a policy analyst, diplomat, international lawyer, or go into international business. </p>

<p>And I don't mean to sound like an SFS partisan, either, or bitter because I wasn't admitted to Harvard. I really was not expecting to attend SFS (and actually didn't realize how amazing the place truly is until I was admitted there last week) and I know that Harvard's 35-person admissions committee looks carefully at everything and when waitlisting versus admitting an applicant has a very good reason to do so.</p>

<p>So, Georgetown is nice? (I'm a junior just starting the college search)</p>

<p>I'm pretty interested in IR, and I'll probably be attending H.</p>

<p>If you're interested in studying international relations at Harvard, I'd suggest looking into the Social Studies and Government concentrations. Social Studies in particular offers a lot of flexibility. and at Harvard, you can always cross register at the grad schools for added benefit.</p>

<p>Georgetown SFS is nice and all, but you have to weigh it with other factors. I think whether or not it's unparalleled in the field is really debatable. I didn't apply to SFS because it's curriculum is very strict and I wanted more freedom, and the Jesuit environment, while more subdued at Georgetown than other Jesuit schools, was still a bit much for me.</p>

<p>Also, Georgetown's endowment is not up to par with the Ivy league, and you likely won't be receiving as much aid from them.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the information.</p>

<p>Georgetown looks the most appealing to me. :)</p>